Update Social Networks with Ping.fm

Overwhelmed by social networks? You are not alone. I constantly find myself jumping from one social network to another, often times updating each network with the same information. Realistically though, logging into multiple social networks to update your status or share info. that’s the same is just silly. There has to be a better way, right?

The folks over at Ping.fm (by Seesmic) feel your pain and want to make life easier for those of you managing several social networks. Today I’ll quickly show you how Ping.fm can simplify your social networking update routine.

Overview

Ping.fm, brought to you by Seesmic, makes it easy to update all your social networks from one simple site. Not only that, Ping.fm has integration options that allow easy updating via email, SMS, your mobile device or even chat applications such as GTalk, Skype or Windows Live Messenger.

Ping.fm Home

Social Networks Galore

No, seriously. Ping.fm sports a “mega list” of social networks that’s bound to include at least a few of the ones you use. They keep adding new ones so if yours isn’t on the list, it might be very soon. They also welcome you to let them know about networks you’re using that aren’t on their list.

Social Networks List

Sign Up

Getting started with Ping.fm is incredibly easy. Just sign up, add your social networks and you’re [basically] ready to go.

Add Social Networks

Start Updating

Once you’ve signed up and added your social networks, you’re essentially ready to start posting updates. It’s likely that you use other means of updating many of your social networks though. Maybe you update many of them via iPhone (or other mobile device), but with Ping.fm you can actually send updates via email, SMS and IM in addition to using your mobile device.

Post Updates

Ping.fm will also shorten URLs for you and you’re even able to quickly and easily add a link to a song, provided by Grooveshark. Clicking the music icon to the top right of the update box brings up an overlay allowing you to quickly and easily search for your desired song and include it in your update.

Add Music

Specific Networks and Groups

The first question I asked myself after I signed up for Ping.fm is, “How can I update individual social networks or just a select few?” Ping.fm keeps the answer to that question simple by providing a drop-down menu with groups and individual networks.

Group Ping

Obviously, as shown in the image above, I only have two example networks setup but those with several more networks will really appreciate the ability to create and post to specific groups.

Post Updates via Email & SMS

A feature I really like at Ping.fm is the ability to post updates and even attach pictures straight from email. Why is this so great? Personally, the more I can keep my daily tasks email oriented, the more productive I’ll be. There are fewer distractions if I don’t have to log into my social networks to post updates. It’s also a little faster through the day as I don’t need to leave my email inbox to post a quick update.

Post By Email

Another really great use for this feature is for those who aren’t able to browse the web during work hours or visit social media sites. To post updates, all you have to do is shoot a quick email to your private ping.fm email address used for updates and your boss will never be the wiser!

You can, of course, post quick updates just as easily using SMS on your mobile and your unique update phone number provided by Ping.fm. Of course, this method won’t allow picture attachments.

SMS Updates

Final Thoughts

Ping.fm is a great little web app with some neat additional goodies that could be really useful for many people. They offer many ways to use the service and from many different platforms. While I really do like Ping.fm and I’ll likely continue using the web app, I can’t help but feel like they’ll need to introduce something really fresh as not to be taken out by large sites like Facebook who intend on integrating this functionality in their own web apps.

There are several other Ping.fm competitors available that look like they have potential, do you use any of them? Do you use an app for updating and managing all your social networks? Let me know in the comments below, I’d really love to hear what you use and think of Ping.fm. Thanks!

Update: I didn’t even notice this until now but Ping.fm is brought to us all by Seesmic! We recently reviewed Seesmic’s Twitter web app, Become a Social Network Ninja with Seesmic. Be sure to check that out if you haven’t already.

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http://joshmmiller.com Josh

I really like their iPhone web app. I find myself using that whenever I’m not near my computer. When I’m at my computer, I just send a message to their bot on AIM. Makes updating all my social networks a breeze,

http://my-views.net Haresh

I’ve been using ping.fm for a few months now. And, I’m more than satisfied

Greg

Nutshell Mail is better. It not only lets you update via email, but it also sends you emails with the latest Facebook posts and Tweets, including the ability to reply or re-tweet them. Also, the problem stopping me from using Seesmic’s web application is that it doesn’t include Facebook. So if you’re at work, at a friend’s place or travelling you can’t use it.

Brad Howell

For Android users, there is an alp called AnyPost that you sign in with your Ping.fm credentials and you can post one update to multiple social sites. Extremely useful!

Ethan Wright

Didn’t you just have a social networking app yesterday? Ugghhhh, I’m getting tired of all of them, please web.appstorm, get some real content…

You missed something…
They also have an IM bot. Add [email protected] to your gtalk and you can update your microblogs, status right from your IM!
Check the list here:http://bit.ly/euFAJN

http://www.themindfulword.org Kiva

Thanks for this! It seems new social media accounts are popping up every day and it’s getting hard to manage them. I just wonder how well the text and images translate to the social media sites. I know that when I get Facebook to pick articles off my RSS feed the image either doesn’t show or when it does it’s really small.